Design Process

Background

My project is a set of tools that help science teachers create/modify/transform a unit of instruction such that it aligns with the Common Core standards for science, the Next Generation Science Standards, and the five School Wide Learning Outcomes of the New Tech Network.

​As such my audience are middle school and high school science teachers who wish to improve their practice by using the newest research-based teaching strategies and the new standards.

​Prototype Development

After conducting my researchI made myself a timeline of edtech tools to learn, shown above. Learning these tools really made it clear to me that as a teacher I really need to do more to teach the non-content skills necessary for all of my students to eventually succeed in the world of the future.

From there I asked myself what would make the transition to modern teaching easier for my co-workers. The answer I came up with was the Toolbox, a series of tools designed to help teacher become familiar with the new standards and teaching pedagogies. In its current form it is very much just an introduction, but I hope to continue work on it on my personal website.

​Logo Development

I started with the first two logo designs, using some free logo maker websites. I really liked the idea of a toolbox, since I was planning on providing my users with a bunch of resources that they could use as they needed. I felt like the representation that I was providing tools, and they still needed to do the work, was appropriate. Most teachers that I've met do not want curriculum and projects just handed to them, they want to make their own. At the very least, they want to heavily modify things in order to make them their own.

Neither of the first two logos were quite right, however. I liked the blue one better, but it still wasn't quite right. After talking about it with my wife, a visual and performing artist, I made the third logo using Google Drawing. It was much closer to what I wanted, especially after I made the gears for the two "O"s, and the screwhead for the third. Feedback from my Cohort pointed out that the colors were a little painful to look at, and the text could be bigger. After some editing I had the final version of my logo. I made the gears and screwhead gray in order to make it a little more clear what they were supposed to be.

​As a science teacher, with no graphic design background, I'm proud of the result.